Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

replacement batteries for the Festool on order, 24 Pesos.

Not bad. NiCd or NiMH?

NiMH, just the spot welded batteries, they go into the original case (which is not glued, but screwed together ...

[tautech]

That... would be an invitation to Murphy.

They will expect you to bring your tools in for more and more stuff; yet when something inevitably goes wrong they will blame you after the fact as your personal tools (which are probably in better nick than any they have, but lack a paper-trail provenance) were used in some procedure related to the failure and it then becomes an excuse to bludgeon you over something else.

"Mistakes were made; others will be blamed." is the management mantra at play here.

mnem
"There's enough misery to go around without grabbing for more." ~grandmomma

The latest incident has me at the point where if work grinds to a halt because of a lack of tools or equipment, I notify everyone involved and stop.  My view is that the productivity loss and increased downtime isn't my problem in that kind of situation anymore, not if the answer to the "I can get on the subway, get what we need, come back and resume work" proposal is "no".  Either equip the shop for what we need to do, discontinue work that we're not equipped to do, or get what we need when an unexpected surprise comes up.  I'm not obligated to bring anything in from home and the only reason I did was to make my own life easier, but I won't be doing that anymore, not after that mess, not after enduring years of "I firmly believe the only thing you need to do your job is your laptop" out of management.

On the other hand, there are plenty of employers out there that require employees provide their own tools and equipment, but employees at places like that get an employer provided tool allowance, and I know a bunch of people  who have jobs where that's the case, but that's not the situation at my employer.

Yes; the management attitude is right there in the relevant dept name: Human Resources.

You are not an individual, or even a skilled tradesperson who knows how to do the job they hired you for; you are a resource to be exploited.

If you eagerly volunteer your life equity in tools you've paid for over years of acquiring your skills, they will not have any compunctions aboot exploiting that aspect of you as a resource either, nor do they feel any obligation to help you pay for replacements when your personl tools are abused and damaged on the job.

In short, as the old man used to say: Keep it in your sneaker.

mnem
 

100% agree !

Provide the tools for me to do the job you hired me for OR pay me a tools allowance to fund the tools required to do the job you hired me for.

Any other management position is abuse/exploitation.
When they won't change their POV then it's time to be looking for a position elsewhere !

[bitseeker]

NiMH, just the spot welded batteries, they go into the original case (which is not glued, but screwed together ...

Ah, good. At least it'll hold a charge better that way. I still have a Makita 6095D that I bought I don't know how long ago. Long enough to be "vintage" on eBay. Its packs are NiCd and they self-discharge so quickly. But they still keep working, so I haven't replaced the cells, yet.

[factory]

Did anyone here get the HP LogicDart that was in the PP aucton? (edit: was ramm-co)

No. But I tried

Interesting NoScript breaks their anti post-the-results bullshit aka hide the sold price. 
Not sure what going on the the opening price bit though. 
Doesn't work on the item pages though.

David

[Specmaster]

Dishwasher update: E15 all over again. Wife has ordered and paid for a new one, and I've evicted the old one

I hope to never see the inside of a Bosch dishwasher again.   

The new one, IIRC, is Siemens. Or, it is more correctly another fork on the brand tree known as B/S/H -- Bosch Siemens Haushaltsgeräte.

With the Siemens name, there of course is a TE connection, even if it is very thin, convoluted and completely irrelevant. My resistor standards are made by Volkseigene Betrieb Rundfunktechnik Gerätewerk Karl-Marx-Stadt, formerly known as Siemens & Halske Werk Erfurt. 

Siemens still (again) do things in Erfurt, but I don't know if there's a lineage here.

Your dishwasher set our washing machine off last night, it's an LG direct drive jobbie, and it stopped about 3 minutes before the end of its cycle with an error code and a drum full of wet washing and a tub of water. It has a little flap at the front right bottom corner with a drain hose for such emergencies. My son and I grabbed a bowl, pulled out the hose and removed the bung to drain the drum and, nothing, not a single drop of water came out. Oh bugger, thats not right, so we decided to tackle it today, as it quite late last night when it stopped.

Today, we started on it and SWMBO removed the washing and jugged the water out from the tub till she could get no more and my son and I pulled it out from under the worktop, only to discover that the plastic handle on the tap off the connection point was broken, so we had to remove the handle and grab a pair of pliers to turn off the water tap, so we could disconnect the fill pipe.

Luckily, the machine is right by the back door, and the waste pipe long enough to allow the machine to be dragged to the door (that machine is so heavy) and we straddled the door stop, pulled the flap down and managed to unscrew the filter. The water flooded all over the garden path, must have been about 2 gallons in the thing. The filter was rammed solid with what turned out to be long hair, fabric fluff, excess soap powder and a 5pence piece.

Cleaned the filter out, reassembled and dragged the machine back in the kitchen and did a test rinse program, all worked again, and I gave a sigh of relief and so glad to be able to dump that water directly into the garden. Had it gone over the floor, it would have ruined the laminate floor, that's for sure.

Within minutes of getting it and me back into the kitchen, the weather took a turn for the worse, and it started to get very windy indeed and rained extremely heavily, as the storm began to batter the house.

Machine is now back in situ and working again, next job is to get Discord working again, but first thing is to eat me dinner.   

[Cerebus]

On the other hand, there are plenty of employers out there that require employees provide their own tools and equipment, but employees at places like that get an employer provided tool allowance, and I know a bunch of people who have jobs where that's the case, but that's not the situation at my employer.

Back when I was the employer (or rather the UK operations manager for the employer) we had real issues with people losing tools, breaking them through misuse and the good careful guys finding their tools wandering off with the idiots leaving them unable to get on with things. I instituted a regime where

• You got an official free issue tool kit.
• From that point onwards those were your tools, you owned them
• You were required to keep that tool kit complete, in full working order, buying stuff as you needed it from wherever you liked as long as it was up to quality standards
• You got an allowance to cover normal wear and tear
• If you couldn't do your job because you didn't have your tools you got a bollocking; too many bollockings and you got your arse kicked out of the door. (I never had to do the latter, merely make it clear it was an option.) Very few bollockings had to be handed out either - I never worked out whether this was just because the scheme worked, or whether the bollockings had disproportional impact as I was generally regarded as the most laid-back manager that anyone had ever had.

It worked. People took better care of their tools (and pocketed, tax free, any tool allowance they didn't need to spend). Tools didn't go missing and people could get on with their work.

[Cerebus]

...The dilemma now is getting them inside and up the stairs without killing myself. I think my landlord has a hand truck. If not I may rent one.

   

Renting is likely to cost you near as much as buying one at Horror Fraught... I usually have one or two on hand every time I move.

Their HaulMaster hand trucks are excellent for the price, and there's usually a sale or coupon to bring the price down to around US$30-40. I've been using them for decades and the only time they let me down was when I didn't keep the tires aired up. Looks like they have one Bigfoot model on clearance for $34; that's the one I usually get. 

You might get lucky and have it at your HF location:

https://www.harborfreight.com/material-handling/hand-trucks-carts-dollies.html

And the appliance dolly they're flogging for $54 is actually a helluva deal, plus it's made for manhandling things like fridges up a stairwell. Only weakness is the small wheels need pavement or other hard flooring; they don't work worth a frig if you have to go over grass/dirt. That's where the fat tires on the Bigfoot line shine.

Then there's these BF Day sale items; for when a "good enough tool" really is good enough.

https://go.harborfreight.com/20-percent-off-coupons/

mnem
*hauling arse since nineteen mumblety-mumble*

Probably better for Med (unless we want more hernia and piss-bag jokes) is a stair climbing hand truck.

[tautech]

On the other hand, there are plenty of employers out there that require employees provide their own tools and equipment, but employees at places like that get an employer provided tool allowance, and I know a bunch of people who have jobs where that's the case, but that's not the situation at my employer.

Back when I was the employer (or rather the UK operations manager for the employer) we had real issues with people losing tools, breaking them through misuse and the good careful guys finding their tools wandering off with the idiots leaving them unable to get on with things. I instituted a regime where

• You got an official free issue tool kit.
• From that point onwards those were your tools, you owned them
• You were required to keep that tool kit complete, in full working order, buying stuff as you needed it from wherever you liked as long as it was up to quality standards
• You got an allowance to cover normal wear and tear
• If you couldn't do your job because you didn't have your tools you got a bollocking; too many bollockings and you got your arse kicked out of the door. (I never had to do the latter, merely make it clear it was an option.) Very few bollockings had to be handed out either - I never worked out whether this was just because the scheme worked, or whether the bollockings had disproportional impact as I was generally regarded as the most laid-back manager that anyone had ever had.

It worked. People took better care of their tools (and pocketed, tax free, any tool allowance they didn't need to spend). Tools didn't go missing and people could get on with their work.

Very fair way C. 
As an apprentice we got issued with a standard tool set and its value was deducted from our tool allowance for ~1 year IIRC until it was all paid for then of course tool allowance was added to our pay.

[Specmaster]

On the other hand, there are plenty of employers out there that require employees provide their own tools and equipment, but employees at places like that get an employer provided tool allowance, and I know a bunch of people who have jobs where that's the case, but that's not the situation at my employer.

Back when I was the employer (or rather the UK operations manager for the employer) we had real issues with people losing tools, breaking them through misuse and the good careful guys finding their tools wandering off with the idiots leaving them unable to get on with things. I instituted a regime where

• You got an official free issue tool kit.
• From that point onwards those were your tools, you owned them
• You were required to keep that tool kit complete, in full working order, buying stuff as you needed it from wherever you liked as long as it was up to quality standards
• You got an allowance to cover normal wear and tear
• If you couldn't do your job because you didn't have your tools you got a bollocking; too many bollockings and you got your arse kicked out of the door. (I never had to do the latter, merely make it clear it was an option.) Very few bollockings had to be handed out either - I never worked out whether this was just because the scheme worked, or whether the bollockings had disproportional impact as I was generally regarded as the most laid-back manager that anyone had ever had.

It worked. People took better care of their tools (and pocketed, tax free, any tool allowance they didn't need to spend). Tools didn't go missing and people could get on with their work.

Wow, I never experienced anything like that, all my working life as tradesmen I have had to provide my own tools except for things like like sack barrows, heavy lifting gear, hydraulic presses etc.

[AVGresponding]

Come on Spec, we're waiting for you on Discord, haven't you changed the elastic band on your PC yet?

 

[cyclin_al]

No work on the RM564 today...  I was hoping to open it up this afternoon.

Instead, spent the day effing around with trying to install LINUX on a new PC (except for the ancient GPU).

It started off okay, with creating an installation USB and doing the install of Ubuntu 20.04.
However, there was no networking.  Eventually discovered that there is no driver for the on-board Ethernet.
Download the driver, and attempt to install.
Driver installation needs make (and other things still to be discovered).
Make can be installed as part of build-essential using apt-get.
Apt-get needs ethernet 

I went to the family computer and searched the internet on how to go about it.
The recommendations are to create a list of needed files and download from the sources.  That makes total sense.
I tried many variations to create such a file list.
Apt-get on the family computer gives an error message that essentially says that I have the latest already installed and refuses to generate the file list 
I also tried out instructions for copy the apt-get archive from the family computer, but there was only an empty folder.
My google-foo is exhausted.
My limited LINUX knowledge is also exhausted.
I am not looking forward to manually downloading, copying and installing an individual file and then repeatedly finding yet another dependency...
(BTW, Winbloze 10 just worked  )

Maybe I will go do house renovations now.  It is only -7 deg C outside, but feels it would be less painful than computer stuff at the moment.

Wait a minute ... I am actually around at Discord time!  How do I join, in seems the invite on TEA page 1 has expired...

[mnementh]

NiMH, just the spot welded batteries, they go into the original case (which is not glued, but screwed together ...

Ah, good. At least it'll hold a charge better that way. I still have a Makita 6095D that I bought I don't know how long ago. Long enough to be "vintage" on eBay. Its packs are NiCd and they self-discharge so quickly. But they still keep working, so I haven't replaced the cells, yet.

I bought mine new when I was 16; built 3 barns with it. Bought/rebuilt at least a dozen packs for it over the years; it saved my arse more times than I can remember, including as a fallback when I got hosed in the great DeWalt exploding gearbox debacle back in the 90s.

Didn't give it up til the move from Houston; I Goodwill'd it when I realized it hadn't seen the light of day in years.

Quite arguably one of the best tools Makita ever made.

mnem
 

[ch_scr]

No work on the RM564 today...  I was hoping to open it up this afternoon.

Instead, spent the day effing around with trying to install LINUX on a new PC (except for the ancient GPU).

It started off okay, with creating an installation USB and doing the install of Ubuntu 20.04.
However, there was no networking.  Eventually discovered that there is no driver for the on-board Ethernet.
Download the driver, and attempt to install.
Driver installation needs make (and other things still to be discovered).
Make can be installed as part of build-essential using apt-get.
Apt-get needs ethernet 

I went to the family computer and searched the internet on how to go about it.
The recommendations are to create a list of needed files and download from the sources.  That makes total sense.
I tried many variations to create such a file list.
Apt-get on the family computer gives an error message that essentially says that I have the latest already installed and refuses to generate the file list 
I also tried out instructions for copy the apt-get archive from the family computer, but there was only an empty folder.
My google-foo is exhausted.
My limited LINUX knowledge is also exhausted.
I am not looking forward to manually downloading, copying and installing an individual file and then repeatedly finding yet another dependency...
(BTW, Winbloze 10 just worked  )

Maybe I will go do house renovations now.  It is only -7 deg C outside, but feels it would be less painful than computer stuff at the moment.

Wait a minute ... I am actually around at Discord time!  How do I join, in seems the invite on TEA page 1 has expired...

You can try for example this
The Debian 11 in the nonfree flavour that includes all the drivers you should need in the image already. Very nice in such cases.
YMMV

[mnementh]

Back when I was the employer (or rather the UK operations manager for the employer) we had real issues with people losing tools, breaking them through misuse and the good careful guys finding their tools wandering off with the idiots leaving them unable to get on with things. I instituted a regime where

• You got an official free issue tool kit.
• From that point onwards those were your tools, you owned them
• You were required to keep that tool kit complete, in full working order, buying stuff as you needed it from wherever you liked as long as it was up to quality standards
• You got an allowance to cover normal wear and tear
• If you couldn't do your job because you didn't have your tools you got a bollocking; too many bollockings and you got your arse kicked out of the door. (I never had to do the latter, merely make it clear it was an option.) Very few bollockings had to be handed out either - I never worked out whether this was just because the scheme worked, or whether the bollockings had disproportional impact as I was generally regarded as the most laid-back manager that anyone had ever had.

It worked. People took better care of their tools (and pocketed, tax free, any tool allowance they didn't need to spend). Tools didn't go missing and people could get on with their work.

Probably also a fair guess that you and most of the people you worked with grew up to be actual adults with some sort of work ethic as they were raised by their parents rather than TV. The core concepts of the last couple generations seems to be that you just have to get by and sooner or later you'll get your big break, and that everything is somebody else's fault, rather than taking responsibility for anything.

mnem
When did a dumb blank look become an acceptable defense for fundamental incompetence...?

[tggzzz]

The dilemma now is getting them inside and up the stairs without killing myself. I think my landlord has a hand truck. If not I may rent one.

Consider a "stair climbing" truck/trolley or similar


Might have to use one myself, next week. Not GAS related

[cyclin_al]

No work on the RM564 today...  I was hoping to open it up this afternoon.

Instead, spent the day effing around with trying to install LINUX on a new PC (except for the ancient GPU).

It started off okay, with creating an installation USB and doing the install of Ubuntu 20.04.
However, there was no networking.  Eventually discovered that there is no driver for the on-board Ethernet.
Download the driver, and attempt to install.
Driver installation needs make (and other things still to be discovered).
Make can be installed as part of build-essential using apt-get.
Apt-get needs ethernet 

I went to the family computer and searched the internet on how to go about it.
The recommendations are to create a list of needed files and download from the sources.  That makes total sense.
I tried many variations to create such a file list.
Apt-get on the family computer gives an error message that essentially says that I have the latest already installed and refuses to generate the file list 
I also tried out instructions for copy the apt-get archive from the family computer, but there was only an empty folder.
My google-foo is exhausted.
My limited LINUX knowledge is also exhausted.
I am not looking forward to manually downloading, copying and installing an individual file and then repeatedly finding yet another dependency...
(BTW, Winbloze 10 just worked  )

Maybe I will go do house renovations now.  It is only -7 deg C outside, but feels it would be less painful than computer stuff at the moment.

Wait a minute ... I am actually around at Discord time!  How do I join, in seems the invite on TEA page 1 has expired...

You can try for example this
The Debian 11 in the nonfree flavour that includes all the drivers you should need in the image already. Very nice in such cases.
YMMV

Thanks.
I took a look.  The driver is not in the images, but I found an image with build-essential.  That should finish downloading .... tomorrow...

[capt bullshot]

...
Apt-get needs ethernet 
...

Temporarily use some other ethernet adapter, e.g. an USB-to-Ethernet - most are supported from the installation images without any hassles.
If you don't have one, get one - it saves time and your nerves ...

[dl6lr]

I was 100% certain that Karl-Marx-Stadt had been and again became Erfurt. When it is Chemnitz.

There has never been anything like Karl-Marx-Stadt. It has been called Gorl-Morgs-Schdodd 

gd&r

[mnementh]

Probably better for Med (unless we want more hernia and piss-bag jokes) is a stair climbing hand truck.

Better... yes, agreed, provided he has broad, flat steps to deal with. Those don't work worth a fig in narrow stairwells; you can't get around corners with them.

Also, I haven't seen one of those for less than $120-150; I was looking for something that would handle a 30kg slab and be reasonable to buy rather than rent. The appliance dolly is made for jacking refrigerators up stairwells; it is also a stair-climbing dolly. Either of them should be more than sufficient force multiplication for 30kg; and I'm saying this as someone with a back injury.

That is my opinion, anyways.

mnem
 

[xrunner]

Do They Still Work?

Apparently, not completely ...

Pulling out some equipment I haven't turned on in a while. This hp 8904A Multifunction Synthesizer hasn't been on in about three years. Was going to set up some waveforms and about half the keys don't work. Might be a simple cable issue. I'll open it in the morning and check it out along with a hp 54501A digital scope that needs to see some action.

 

[AVGresponding]

Do They Still Work?

Apparently, not completely ...

Pulling out some equipment I haven't turned on in a while. This hp 8904A Multifunction Synthesizer hasn't been on in about three years. Was going to set up some waveforms and about half the keys don't work. Might be a simple cable issue. I'll open it in the morning and check it out along with a hp 54501A digital scope that needs to see some action.

 

Some oxidation on the conductive rubber/contacts of the keypad matrix maybe?

[mnementh]

No work on the RM564 today...  I was hoping to open it up this afternoon.

Instead, spent the day effing around with trying to install LINUX on a new PC (except for the ancient GPU).

It started off okay, with creating an installation USB and doing the install of Ubuntu 20.04.
However, there was no networking.  Eventually discovered that there is no driver for the on-board Ethernet.
Download the driver, and attempt to install.
Driver installation needs make (and other things still to be discovered).
Make can be installed as part of build-essential using apt-get.
Apt-get needs ethernet 

I went to the family computer and searched the internet on how to go about it.
The recommendations are to create a list of needed files and download from the sources.  That makes total sense.
I tried many variations to create such a file list.
Apt-get on the family computer gives an error message that essentially says that I have the latest already installed and refuses to generate the file list 
I also tried out instructions for copy the apt-get archive from the family computer, but there was only an empty folder.
My google-foo is exhausted.
My limited LINUX knowledge is also exhausted.
I am not looking forward to manually downloading, copying and installing an individual file and then repeatedly finding yet another dependency...
(BTW, Winbloze 10 just worked  )

Maybe I will go do house renovations now.  It is only -7 deg C outside, but feels it would be less painful than computer stuff at the moment.

Wait a minute ... I am actually around at Discord time!  How do I join, in seems the invite on TEA page 1 has expired...

You can try for example this
The Debian 11 in the nonfree flavour that includes all the drivers you should need in the image already. Very nice in such cases.YMMV

Also, as I suggested before, Mint/Cinnamon: It just works on 3 different machines in my house:

https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=288

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Do They Still Work?

Apparently, not completely ...

Pulling out some equipment I haven't turned on in a while. This hp 8904A Multifunction Synthesizer hasn't been on in about three years. Was going to set up some waveforms and about half the keys don't work. Might be a simple cable issue. I'll open it in the morning and check it out along with a hp 54501A digital scope that needs to see some action.

 

Some oxidation on the conductive rubber/contacts of the keypad matrix maybe?

I was just going to say the exact same thing, I can't see it being a cable issue if it worked last time.

The rubber band is fixed, but not got round to setting discord up yet, real life keeps getting in the way at the moment, tomorrow is my sons' birthday. Was BD on tonight?

[xrunner]

Some oxidation on the conductive rubber/contacts of the keypad matrix maybe?

Yea, all the usual suspects like that and cable connections. I just got through having to clean all the carbon pads in my Logitech universal remote. Probably done that 3 other times since I've had it. That gets used a whole lot, this thing doesn't. But ... anythings possible in the land of TEA as we all know. 

[tautech]

Was BD on tonight?

Nope but he was on the forum a few days back.